A Battery at Close garters 



A Paper 



READ BEFORE THE OHIO COMMANDBRY 
OP THE LOYAL LEGION 



October 6, igog 



BY 

HENRY M. NEIL 

Captain Twenly-secon<!l Ohio Battery 



COLUMBUS, OHIO 

1909 






•//^■'7 E 



^-^; 



THC CHAMPI.IN PRESS 
COI-UMBUS, OHIO 



IN EXCHANGE 

JAN 5 - 1^15 



NS 



A BATTERY AT CLOSE QUARTERS. 



Being the Story of the Eleventh Ohio Bat- 
tery AT lUKA AND CORINTH. 



During the Civil War artillery projectiles 
were divided as to structure into solid, hollow and 
case shot. The solid shot were intended to batter 
down walls or heavy obstructions. Hollow pro- 
jectiles, called shell and shrapnel, were for use 
against animate objects; to set fire to buildings 
and destroy lighter obstructions. Under the 
head of case shot we had grape and canister. 
Grape shot is no longer used; being superseded 
by the machine gun. Canister is simply a sheet 
iron case filled with bullets and is effective only 
at very sliort ranges. 

The foremost European military writer, Ho- 
henloe, states that in the Franco-Prussian war, 
the batteries of the Prussian Guard expended 
about twenty-five thousand shells and one can- 
ister, and that this one canister was broken in 
transport. 



In the official reports of the recent Russo- 
Japanese War we find that the Arisaka gun, 
which was the Japanese field piece, has a range 
of 6,600 meters. The Russian field pieces were 
said to give good results at 8,000 meters, or five 
miles. The Japanese, and later the Russians, 
made a great feature of indirect fire. Having lo- 
cated a mass of the enemy, probably beyond two 
ranges of hills, they would stake out a line in- 
dicating the direction, then secure the range by 
the use of shells which gave out a yellowish vapor 
on bursting. This vapor being observed and 
signaled by scouts also indicated the necessary 
angles of departure from the line of stakes and 
enabled the artillerymen, miles away from actual 
contact, to complacently try experiments in bat- 
tle ballistics with very little fear of being inter- 
rupted by an enemy. 

The range of modern field artillery being of- 
ficially reported at five miles, permit me to take 
you back to a day, over forty-seven years ago, 
when an Ohio battery, placed in the extreme 
front of battle, fought at less than fifty yards. 

The village of luka lies in the northeast cor- 
ner of the State of Mississippi. The neighboring 
country is broken and, in 1862, was covered with 
forests. Northwesterly from luka lies the vil- 
lage of Burnsville and further on the little city 
of Corinth, close to the Tennessee line. In 1862 



Corinth possessed strategical advantages which 
caused it to become a large supply depot for the 
Federal armies. South of Corinth and south- 
west of luka, the town of Jacinto was located. 

On the eighteenth of September, 1862, Gen- 
eral Sterling Price lay at luka with an army of 
about twenty thousand Confederates. General 
E. O. G. Ord's force lay between Burnsville and 
Corinth and had just been reinforced by Ross's 
division. Burnsville was seven miles from luka. 
General Rosecrans lay at Jacinto, nineteen and 
one-half miles from luka. 

General Grant, taking advantage of this sit- 
uation, ordered a combined attack by Ord and 
Rosecrans upon General Price. Under this or- 
der Rosecrans moved from Jacinto at 3:00 A. 
M. September 19th, and was within sitriking 
distance of Price's patrols by noon. Ord was 
to attack from the west and draw Price in that 
direction while Rosecrans was to move to the 
rebel rear by the Jacinto and Fulton roads and 
cut off their retreat. Neither of these Union 
armies was powerful enough to make, alone, a 
successful attack upon Price. 

The strategical plan of attack above outlined 
was not carried out. Ord's strategy never reach- 
ed the domain of tactics, for he went into camp 
seven miles west of luka and the head of Rose- 
crans' column was attacked by the entire army 



of Price. It was with the head of this column 
that the Eleventh Ohio Battery marched into the 
fight. Anticipating a combined engagement the 
head of the colunm pushed its innocent way into 
the maw of the entire rebel arm3^ We had to 
fight first and think afterward. Price had hours 
to choose his positions and, incidentally, he chose 
our position also. We didn't have time to change 
it. 

' ' Rapidity of movement and surprise are the 
life and soul of the strategical offensive." That 
maxim reads well but, in practice, it is important 
to provide against being surprised by the other 
fellow before you spring j^our surprise on him. 

For several miles in the afternoon of the 
19th of September the advance of Rosecrans' 
column was warmly contested. The enemy's 
sharp-shooters occupied every point of vantage, 
making the last five miles a steady contest. The 
cavalry had long ago been driven in. A few 
companies formed an advance skirmish line only 
a short distance from the main colunm. Near 
the front of the column marched the Eleventh 
Ohio Battery. The men knew that an engage- 
ment was imminent but their immediate front 
was unknown and unexplored. As usual, we had 
no maps. While marching through a defile at 
the crest of a thickly wooded hill we noticed 
that the rifle fire in front was suddenly increased. 



But there was no pause to reconnoiter. The bat- 
tery marched from the defile into within short 
range of Price's whole army. Instantly an en- 
tire rebel division concentrated its fire on the 
batter}^ with the intention of annihilating it be' 
fore it could unlimber. 

As we emerged from the cut this sudden con- 
centration of rifle fire gave me the impression of 
being in a violent hail storm. Riding at the 
head of the column I turned my head to look 
for the men, expecting to see half the men and 
horses down. To my great joy I found all unin- 
jured. The storm of bullets was passing just 
over our heads. We hastened to get into posi- 
tion and unlimber before they could get the 
range. Just in front of us the road turned to 
the right. We turned to the right into the brush 
and took position facing this road. As our men 
were clearing the hazel brush for positions for 
their guns a Wisconsin battery appeared about 
three or four hundred yards to our left and un- 
limbered; but it suddenly limbered up and gal- 
loped to the rear without having fired a shot. It 
had been ordered back, leaving the Eleventh the 
only Union battery in the battle. 

The Fifth Iowa took position just at our 
right. The Twenty-sixth Missouri prolonged the 
line to the right of the Fifth Iowa. On our left 
the Forty-eighth Indiana formed a line that 



swung somewhat forward at its left flank. Our 
side of the fight began with these three regiments 
in position. The front thus hastil}^ formed did 
not permit of further extension, owing to the 
nature of the ground. 

A little later the Fourth Minnesota and Six- 
teenth Iowa were, respectively, echeloned in rear 
of the left and right flanks. The total force ac- 
tually engaged was 2800 Union and 11,000 Con- 
federates. 

When the Eleventh went into position Lieu- 
tenant Sears Avas in command. As junior First 
Lieutenant, I had the right section, while Sec- 
ond Lieutenant Alger fought the center section. 
Of the acting Second Lieutenants Perrine had 
the left section and Bauer the line of caissons. 
During the fight I succeeded to the command 
when Sears went to the rear with a woimd. Al- 
ger was captured. Bauer was killed. 

The battery had taken position in line from 
column under an infantry fire from an entire 
division at ranges of from 200 to 400 yards. 
Shells from the rebel artillery were also crash- 
ing through our line. We opened fire at first 
with shell. This shell fire proved so effective 
that a rebel assault on the battery was ordered. 
A division of Price's army rushed to the charge. 
The battery changed from shell to double charges 
of canister. The effect of the canister was ter- 



ribly increased because of the rebel method of 
charging in masses. Had the line to the left of 
the battery held its front the assault on the bat- 
tery would have been impossible of success. But 
Col. Eddy of the 48th Indiana was killed and the 
survivors of his regiment were swept back by 
overwhelming numbers. The left flank of the 
battery was thus left bare and unsupported. On 
the right the Fifth Iowa was cut to pieces. Only 
eleven officers and a handful of men remained. 
With the line melted away the battery found 
itself facing in three directions and battling with 
masses on three fronts. It had a rear but no 
flanks. The guns were being worked with great- 
er speed and smaller crews. Cannoneers were 
falling. Other cannoneers coolly took their 
places and performed double duty. Drivers left 
their dead horses and took the places of dead or 
wounded comrades, only to be struck down in 
turn. Of eighty horses only three remained 
standing and a withdrawal of the guns was im- 
possible. The surviving men were too few to 
do more than work the guns. Finally the charg- 
ing hordes, checked and mutilated again and 
again in front, to right and to left, pressed close. 
Eight thousand men against two score. On the 
fifth charge the survivors were finally choked 
from the guns they would not abandon. 



General Rosecrans in his notice, in orders, of 
the facts and results of the battle of luka, states 
that the Eleventh Ohio Battery participated: 

** Under circumstances of danger and 
exposure such as rarely, perhaps never, 
have fallen to the lot of one single battery 
during this war." 

In the same order the commanding General 
further states: 

"On a narrow front, intersected by 
ravines and covered with dense under- 
growth, with a single battery, Hamilton's 
division went into action against the com- 
bined rebel hosts. On that unequal 
ground, which permitted the enemy to 
outnumber them three to one, they fought 
a glorious battle, mowing down the rebel 
hordes until, night closing in, they rested 
on their arms on the ground, from which 
the enemy retired during the night, leav- 
ing us masters of the field." 

General Hamilton's official report, in describ- 
ing the action of the Union left flank, states : 



10 



*' Colonel Sanborn, in command of the 
first brigade, most gallantly held the left 
in position until, under a desolating car- 
nage of musketry and canister, the brave 
Eddy was cut down, and his regiment, 
borne down by five times their numbers, 
fell back in some disorder on the Eigh- 
tieth Ohio, under Lieutenant-Colonel Bar- 
tilson. The falling back of the Forty- 
eighth exposed the battery. As the masses 
of the enemy advanced the battery opened 
with canister at short range, mowing down 
the rebels by scores, until, with every of- 
ficer killed or Avounded and nearl}^ every 
man and horse killed or disabled, it fell 
an easy prey. But this success was short 
lived. 

''The hero Sullivan rallied a portion of 
the right wing, and, with a bravery better 
characterized as audacity, drove the reb- 
els back to cover. Again they rallied and 
again the battery fell into their hands; 
but with the wavering fortunes of this 
desperate fight the battery again fell into 
our hands, and with three of its guns 
spiked and the carriages cut and splin- 
tered with balls, it is again ready to meet 
the foe." 



11 



At the close of the engagement the ground in 
front of the battery showed heaps of dead 
bodies. Statistics show that the Confederates' 
loss in this engagement amounted to eight hun- 
dred in killed and wounded. While actual in- 
spection of the field of carnage indicated that 
a large proportion of the slain had met their 
death from the canister of the Eleventh. The 
Brigade Commander's report states that the 
battery fired with great rapidity and extraor- 
dinary accuracy. 

The battery entered the fight with ninety- 
seven men and five officers, commissioned and 
acting. Of these, eighteen were killed and thir- 
ty-nine wounded, many mortally. A number of 
the wounded had been bayoneted at their guns. 
Of the cannoneers alone, forty-six were killed 
or wounded. Forty-six out of a total of fifty- 
four. More than five men out of every six. 

The statistics compiled by Col. Fox in his 
'^Regimental Losses in the American Civil 
War," show that this day's record in killed and 
mortally wounded equaled, within one, the total 
killed in any light battery during its entire term 
of service. This work also states that the losses 
of the Eleventh at luka were 22% greater than 
those sustained by any other light battery in 
any one engagement during the war. 



12 



You have been familiar with death and 
wounds and the aching pain of deep sympathy 
for suffering comrades. Therefore I will not 
depict the tortures and individual heroisms of 
those artillerymen who fell, to die or partly re- 
cover. Those who died left a legacy of glory 
and honor to posterity and to their country. 
That legacy is of greater value than the greatest 
riches, for it will always endure, and the martyrs 
of the civil war, the dead and the living, will 
proudly bear to the throne of God those scars 
which were the price of their country's salva- 
tion. 

One singular feature of this fight was that 
but two members of the battery were taken pris- 
oners. The guns were captured and recaptured 
several times before dark. The battery men 
had never abandoned them voluntarily. One 
Confederate prisoner afterward said: 

** Those battery boys had so much 
spunk that we took pity on a few who 
were left." 

It may have been this respect for the courage 
of the artillerymen which induced the Confed- 
erates to let the few survivors go. But could 
they have looked into the future and seen these 
same men and gims at Corinth only fourteen 



13 



days later, they would probably have dropped 
every other work and secured them while they 
had this one chance. 

After attending to the wounded, the night 
after the fight at luka, all members of the bat- 
tery were ordered to a rendezvous. They were 
all assembled by 5 A. M. and, after reverenth' 
burying our dead, the men turned their attention 
to securing the guns and equipments scattered 
over the field. The drivers cried softly as they 
removed the harness from their faithful mounts. 
In one mass lay eighteen dead horses. These three 
teams, instead of trying to escape, had swung 
together and died together. My own horse re- 
ceived seven woimds. Toward the close of the 
engagement he sank down and was left for 
dead. Some time during the night he revived 
and was found by an officer of Rosecrans' staff 
who rode him until daylight. This horse survived 
the war two years, then suddenly dropped dead 
in his stall. A bullet had finally worked its way 
into an artery. 

Of the other three surviving horses one had 
an interesting history. He was a fine strong bay 
who always worked as near leader. At our first 
battle. New Madrid, this horse's rider was lit- 
terally cut in two by a thirty-two pound ball. 
The horse kept his place, covered with the blood 
of poor James Bibby. After this baptism he 



14 



seemed to bear a charmed life. He was mustered 
out with the battery, still able to do full duty. 

Early in the morning after the battle Gen- 
eral Rosecrans ordered me to refit the battery 
as rapidly as possible. After the guns' spikes 
were removed the pieces were found to be in 
serviceable order and work on the splintered 
carriages was begun. 

A description of our six guns may be of in- 
terest. They were: 

2 rifled 6 pounders, bronze, (James 
pattern), (calibre 3.67, weight of ball, 14 
lbs.) 

2 smooth bore 6 pounders, (calibre 
3.67, weight of ball, 14 lbs.) 

2 twelve pounder Howitzers, (calibre 
4.62.) 

These guns would soon be needed again, for 
General Rosecrans had promised us more work 
in the near future at Corinth. In this emergency 
I was allowed to draw horses and equipment 
from the nearest available sources without reg- 
ular requisition. General Rosecrans' foresight 
in stretching regulations further permitted me 
to obtain recruits from my brigade commander, 
and the rejuvenation of the Eleventh was soon 



15 



under way. The new men were drilled as hard 
as their other duties permitted. The battery was 
ready for the march to Corinth by the evening 
of October 1st. 

General Rosecrans had left orders with Col- 
onel Crocker, who was left in command at luka, 
to furnish the Eleventh with an escort to Cor- 
inth. On the evening of October first I found 
that an escort could not be secured for two or 
three days, as Colonel Crocker had onlj^ enough 
men present for guard and picket duty. 

My orders were to report at Corinth as soon 
as possible. The news from there indicated that 
a big battle was imminent. It also indicated 
that the Eleventh ran some risk of capture if it 
went through alone. But there was no way to 
avoid that risk. I therefore drew some extra 
horses, sent mounted cannoneers forward as an 
advance guard, and started for Corinth on the 
morning of October second. I felt very uneasy 
at starting on that march for I knew that, if I 
met one of the numerous strong bands of guerril- 
las or a Confederate force, I might be shot up 
first and court-martialed afterward. 

Nothing unusual happened during the daj^'s 
march. By four P. M. we were inside our own 
lines and a little later the battery was assigned 
to a strange brigade. By the morning of Oc- 
tober third I managed to secure an order sending 



16 



us to our old brigade. It looked much smaller 
than before luka but that made us think all the 
more of it. 

After the failure of his Napoleonic tactics at 
luka, General Price retreated to Ripley, Mis- 
sissippi, where he united with a still stronger 
rebel force, under General Van Dorn. Van Dorn 
assumed command of the united forces and 
pushed forward toward Corinth with intent to 
overwhelm Rosecrans. 

Corinth w^as surrounded by extensive works 
constructed by Beauregard when he held that 
position against Halleck's army. Rosecrans had 
too few troops to man these works but had taken 
the precaution to hastily construct an inner line 
of fortifications, which was traced about a mile 
west from the center of the village. 

The cavalry had promptly notified Rosecrans 
of the formidable rebel movement northward 
and he had hurriedly prepared to receive it. 
About 10 A. M. on October third we moved from 
our camp east of Corinth, marching through the 
town to a designated point at the right of the 
Federal lines. These lines occupied the outer 
line of works built by Beauregard. 

At about 2 P. M. we received the order to fall 
back to the new line, nearer Corinth. In execut- 
ing this movement I saw several heavy columns 
of rebels approaching, en route with the same ob- 



17 



jective. It looked for a time as if we might be 
surromided, but nothing resulted except a few 
singing bullets which did no harm. It was evi- 
dent that the rebels felt that we were in a trap 
and they were pursuing a prearranged plan in 
springing it. As we reached the northwestern 
suburb of Corinth we swung to the left and con- 
tinued until we reached the right wing of the new 
line, where we selected a fine position on rising 
ground with a clear field of fire and a magnificent 
view. 

The new defensive line of which we had just 
formed a part, presented a concave front to Van 
Dorn's army. Our elevated position enabled the 
batterymen to see both lines of battle. Being at 
the Federal right flank we became one of the 
horns of the dilemma which confronted Van- 
Dorn's hosts the next day. 

Van Dorn's magnificent series of assaults' 
against our line began about 9 :30 the next morn- 
ing. The masses of the enemy first attacked our 
left flank and were repulsed. Then thej^ assailed 
our center, penetrated it, but were at length 
driven back into the cross fire of our artillery. 

By 2 P. M. the attacks against the left and 
center had exhausted themselves and the peril of 
a broken center was narrowly averted. Then the 
rebels, having concentrated for another supreme 
effort, bore down upon Hamilton's division on 



18 



the right. This was good tactics, because our 
right had been weakened by sending troops to 
the imperilled center. 

The now familiar sight of masses of rebels, 
screaming the familiar yell, appeared in our 
front. As the mass approached I recognized 
them and called to the men: '^Boys, there are 
the same troops that fought us at luka ; are you 
going to let them touch our guns today?" The 
yell of rage that went up was more ominous than 
a rebel yell ever tried to be. 

At six hundred yards the Eleventh opened 
with shell. The men worked like tigers in their 
desperate resolve that their beloved guns would 
never again feel the insult of a rebel touch. 

Three times they charged and three times 
they were repulsed. Each time they came so 
close that we resorted to double charges of can- 
ister and never a rebel reached the muzzles of 
our guns. By four o'clock the Confederates 
were staggering back or surrendering in squads. 

From some prisoners taken at Corinth it was 
learned that they were still unnerved from the 
moral effect of their assaults at luka. Those 
prisoners stated that, as they went into the as- 
sault, they recognized the bark of the guns of 
the Eleventh Ohio. Before these guns they had 
seen hundreds of their comrades fall like wheat 
before the harvester. They felt that they could 



19 



not again silence the guns of the Eleventh. It 
had taken five assaults to do so when the odds 
were many to one. 

At daylight of October 5th, after a night 
spent in convoying prisoners and caring for the 
wounded, we started in pursuit of the remains 
of Price's and Van Dorn's armies. During that 
day's march our army simply gathered in 
throngs of rebels. The retreating force had been 
three days without regular rations and were too 
weak to escape. 

For two long days and nights we pressed 
our foes until our condition was hardly better 
than theirs. At one A. M. on the second night's 
march, we were stumbling along, almost dead 
with fatigue, when suddenly a band struck up 
the familiar song— John Brown's Body. Other 
bands joined; we all woke up and were soon 
swinging along without a thought of our condi- 
tion. I have often wondered what moral effect 
this musical demonstration, at dead of night, 
had upon our quarry. 

It took us three days to return to Corinth, 
horses stiunbling with weariness, men asleep in 
their saddles, tired but happy, a victory won 
against odds. 



20 



*'AN ARMY EXPERIENCE" 



The following appreciative remembrance of 
the action of the Eleventh Ohio Battery at bat- 
tles of luka, September 19, 1862, and Corinth, 
October 4, 1862, appeared in the colunms of the 
St. Paul (Miimesota) Pioneer Press in 1884. 
Having been preserved by a Companion of the 
Ohio Commandery, it was read by the Recorder, 
Major Thrall, at the Commandery monthly meet- 
ing of October 6, 1909, as the Recorder's contri- 
bution to the discussion of an account of the part 
of the Eleventh Ohio in those battles, which had 
just been presented by Captain Neil, and by 
general request is published by the Commandery, 
without the advice or consent of Companion Neil. 

Geo. a. Thayer, 

A. B. ISHAM, 

L. M. HosEA, 
Publication Committee. 



23 



AN ARMY EXPERIENCE. 



**No scenes of life are so deeply and indelibly 
impressed upon the memory as those which oc- 
cur in war and battle. All the mental faculties 
seem to be melted into a fused condition by the 
excitement of the occasion, so that a full and 
deep impression of all the principal events is 
made and then to be suddenly turned to adamant 
so that the impression must remain as long as 
the faculties endure. There is not a soldier of 
the late war, who took part in any engagement, 
who does not have impressed upon his mind some 
event or scene which then transpired that is just 
as vivid and fresh today as on the day it was 
made. And when the memory is turned toward 
it by the suggestion of any other faculty— by the 
sight of some party connected therewith, or hear- 
ing kindred soirnds, or by those more hidden 
spiritual influences less understood that at times 
cause to form in order and pass in review before 
the mind all the leading and exciting incidents 
of past life, these events and scenes are again 
displayed with all the vividness and strength 



26 



of, first impression. These thoughts were sug- 
gested to the writer upon meeting Lieutenant H. 
M. Neil of the Eleventh Ohio Battery at the 
meeting of the Society of the Army of the Ten- 
nessee at St. Louis, in 1882. Twenty years had 
passed since I had seen his face, and I had reck- 
oned him among the brave spirits of the war 
which had gone to rest. When I saw him last 
before this, he was commanding his battery in 
the thickest of the fight at the battle of Corinth 
about 11 o'clock in the forenoon of October 4, 
1862. His rank was that of Second Lieutenant. 
All officers of higher grade were absent m hos- 
pital from wounds received fifteen daj^s before 
at luka, in which battle this battery of a few 
more than 100 men had eighteen killed and fifty- 
two wounded, and out of 148 horses had but three 
left standing at the close of the engagement. The 
battery was captured by the rebels and recap- 
tured by our troops. Lieutenant Neil was the 
only commissioned officer on duty at the close 
of the engagement, and he had been wounded 
twice with shell and twice with bullets— severe 
flesh womids. He was besmeared with blood. 
The Lieutenant was, notwithstanding full of 
pluck. He said the' next morning, " If I can have 
one hundred men detailed from the infantry 
and horses furnished, I will have the battery in 
fighting trim agam in two weeks." Infantry 



26 



soldiers readily volunteered upon call to man the 
battery, and horses were furnished by the Quar- 
termaster, and on the afternoon of the 3d of Oc- 
tober—fourteen da,ys from the annihilation of 
the batter}^ the battle of Corinth was fought and 
the Lieutenant having marched up from luka 
without escort, cam.e upon the field with his bat- 
tery full}^ manned, equipped and drilled, amid 
the hurrahs and tears of the infantry that had 
seen it destroyed under the terrible fire of the 
19th of September, and who now seemed to feel 
that the battery men, horses and all, had come 
back from the regions of the dead to aid in the 
terrible struggle now going on between the same 
armies. 

"The Lieutenant received the heartiest con- 
gratulations of all officers who had been with him 
in the battle of luka. While receiving those of 
the writer he said: "I want you to stay right 
by my battery with your regiment when it goes 
into action here, and if you will no rebel bat- 
talions can take it this time." There was a 
promise to comply with his request. On the fol- 
lowing morning when the irresistible assault of 
the rebel army came, the Eleventh Ohio Battery 
was in position commanding the whole rebel line 
and the Fourth Minnesota Infantry in line flat 
upon the ground close in its rear. Lieutenant 
Neil was seated on his thoroughbred from twenty 



27 



to forty feet in front of the battery, between the 
line of fire of the guns of the middle section. He 
requested the Colonel of the infantry to keep his 
eye upon him and whenever he beckoned with 
his saber, to have the infantry rise up and de- 
liver their fire. 

**Now the assaulting lines of the rebel armies 
come on like a wave of the sea, rolling along over 
breastworks and batteries. He orders the men 
to open fire and, still in his advanced position, 
waves his hat constantly to the advancing lines 
of rebels, and shouts, 'Come on! Come on! if 
you think you can play luka over again.' A 
strange coincidence was that the same rebel bat- 
talions came against this battery that had cap- 
tured it on the 19th of September. But they 
could not come on here. Three times the Lieu- 
tenant signaled the infantry to rise and fire, and 
each time the}^ rose to hear him say, 'No, no, 
they have broke again.' 

"For a half mile in front of this battery, af- 
ter the battle, were large areas covered with the 
dead and dying, which told with what terrible 
effect it had been served during the assault. 

"The sight of the Lieutenant, after twenty 
years, brought up these occurrences— this whole 
scene, and made it as fresh as if it had transpired 
yesterday, and made me resolve to conmait it to 



28 



writing before I died, feeling that none of us 
had done him justice in our reports of these 
battles. 

''The scene at Corinth, if it could be placed on 
canvas, would be thrilling even to strangers. An 
elegant thoroughbred Kentucky horse fully ca- 
parisoned, on which the Lieutenant is sitting 
erectly, with his hat in his hand, is standing out 
in front of the battery between the lines of fire 
of the two center guns, seemingly conscious that 
if he moved to the right or left he would be torn 
to atoms, and trusting himself wholly to his 
rider, the Lieutenant is waving his hat in the air, 
and bidding defiance to the foe; advancing in 
masses and lines upon his positions, the artillery- 
men with superhuman power and skill, amid the 
smoke that rolled incessantly from the muzzles 
of every gun, loading and firing, is a picture be- 
fore the mind at this distance plainer than can 
be placed on canvas by the most skillful artist. 
It is such men and such services that saved this 
nation in the war. They were not conspicuous 
nor vain-glorious, perhaps not heard of before 
the war, nor afterwards ; but in the midst of it, 
meeting the full demands of the great occasion 
and leaving the reward to posterity. 

"What this officer did after this battle in the 
war, I know not. He passed from my sight 
when we withdrew from that line of battle, and 



29 



twenty years passed before I saw liis face again, 
and during all this time never heard a word con- 
cerning him. When I met him it was my priv- 
ilege to name him as one of the vice presidents of 
our society, showing that time had in no respect 
obliterated or dinmied the memory of his ser- 
vices. 

JOHN B. SANBORN, Commanding, 
First Brigade, Seventh Division, Army of the 

Tennessee. 

St. Paul, Jan. 14, 1884/' 



80 



